W.W. Norton has released a fun little animation answering this thorny question. It has to do with abundance and hoarding, and the technological innovations that underlie these things, as well as government’s willingness to redistribute wealth.

Comments 11

RG — October 6, 2012

This is interesting, but the statistics are hugely off, especially involving illiteracy and malnutrition: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.asp

WHY IS THERE INEQUALITY? « Welcome to the Doctor's Office — October 6, 2012

[...] from SocImages [...]

Alexander — October 6, 2012

What comforting phrasing regarding inequality of wealth! "Those six and us ninety-four."

Vadim McNab — October 6, 2012

Equal opportunity not equal outcome.

Yrro Simyarin — October 7, 2012

Yes, the real problem is the "rich" civilizations are hording the wealth, not that they are the only ones who have managed to build the societal and physical infrastructure to solve the incredibly difficult problem of creating wealth in the first place. Wealth doesn't just exist waiting to be picked up and distributed.

He also has a very rosy view of the time before storage that is not backed up by any study of anthropology I have seen.

Jesus — October 7, 2012

The nature of man is conflict-- in a word, war.

pduggie — October 8, 2012

Its funny when the video uses "she" to describe the origins of inequality. On the one hand, you go counter to the male pronoun dominance. On the other hand, you make it sound like women who can food are to blame for starting inequality and not sharing.